Nick redeems himself with a victory.

Several years ago Nick begged a ride in the navigator seat, usually reserved by his older brother Chris. Chris has always been an excellent navigator for me, even in tough TSD events. Nick however, didn’t do so well. Exiting a parking lot after a rest stop, he instructed me to turn right, rather than left, and we ended up about 12 miles off course and showed up late for the awards lunch! Not to mention dead last. That experience soured him off rallying for a while.

Yesterday was the Seattle Jaguar Club’s “Spring Thing” rally, which they have apparently been staging for a long long time. Chris is off at College, and Nick vacillated a bit about taking on the task. Finally Friday night he decided to go for it after I twisted his arm a bit.

Well, we somehow managed to pull off a first place finish, all thanks to Nick. It was not a “real” TSD rally, just sort of a “gimmick” rally where you follow a route, and answer questions based on observing things. This one required a bit of social engineering as it asked some oddball questions which required interactions with strangers. Nick is such a self-confident kid that he’s up for those things. We drew the first car out from the Issaquah Krispy Kreme donut shop and managed to get the most answers right and match the pace time closest enough to pull off a win. A dozen cars participated; six E-types, two XK 120s, and four XJSs. The two really tough questions involved wandering into an ice cream shop and asking what flavor was their best. (‘Bunny tracks’) and the other involved figuring out how many wineries were located in a sprawling industrial estate in Woodinville, all while a huge Spring Release tasting event/open house was going on. The place was packed with tour busses and people, so I waited outside while Nick dove in, found an information booth and got the answers he needed.

The finish was in Redmond, at a place called the Coho Cafe. Nick & I split some steamed clams and shrimp & chips. Tasty! Later we found out we had won, narrowly missing the dreaded second place, which obligates you to organizing the following year’s event (something I think I’m up for anyway… though I’d make it a TSD!) The trophy is a plaque that has been in the club since 1972 (when I was 9 years old!) and when appended with all the names of winners is almost as big as Nick: